Tilting pad thrust bearings are used to support the collar attached to a rotating shaft. The collar has a planar surface perpendicular to the rotating shaft which transmits the axial load from the rotating shaft by hydrodynamic oil pressure developed in an oil film between the collar and an array of individual tilting pads. The pads are supported by upper and lower equalizing links which are in turn supported by a retaining ring which transmits the thrust load to a stationary machine housing.
Tilting pad thrust bearings have been in use for many years and particular variations in the form of the tilting pad thrust bearing have been proposed and patented including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,403,873 and 4,501,505 and my own U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,864 issued Sep. 10, 1991.
The tilting pad thrust bearings described and claimed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,864 improved equalization of the thrust load amongst the pads by reducing the sliding friction generated by prior thrust bearing arrangements. This was achieved by having the axes of the upper equalizing link and the lower equalizing link pivot pins and interconnecting contact points all lie in a common plane when the links are in a position of zero pivoting angle.